Enslaved
by Raiegki Leviathan
Summary: A story about Dingodile, how he came to be, his thoughts and feelings, and how he eventually turned to the side of good. I'm horrible of thinking of fic titles


A/N: Does anyone ever come to the Crash section anymore? Did they ever? *Sigh* Anyway, this fic is about my favorite Crash character, Dingodile (God of all things cute), and my theories on how he came to be all the way to how he eventually joined the side of good. ^_^  
  
I tried to make it morbid, I couldn't resist putting humor in it.. ^_^ This is a (short) one-shot, so that you know.  
  
Warning: This fic contains spoilers for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and CTR: Crash Team Racing.  
  
Note: This was written without any knowledge of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex  
  
Disclaimer: Dingodile, Crash Bandicoot, and all related characters do NOT belong to me. (Wow, that sounded professional)  
  
~*~  
  
Enslaved  
  
~*~  
  
"Yes! YES! That's it!" Dr. Neo Cortex, a somewhat balding, vertically challenged mad scientist with an attention grabbing, obnoxious capital "N" on his huge forehead cried. "This will be my greatest creation yet!"  
  
"Dr. Cortex..." Cortex's assistant, N. Gin, a short, plump, orange haired fellow with a back riddled with bullet holes and a missle lodged in his head warned. "Are you sure this will work? The Evolvo-Ray has never been put to do such a task."  
  
Cortex's old assistant, Nitrus Brio, had disappeared after the first attempt to take over the world, Neo Cortex needed a new head henchman. That was N. Gin. And, with many of his minions missing, Cortex needed a new array of workers to help acheive his utterly selfish goal.  
  
True, the first Evolvo-Ray was destroyed, it wasn't too hard to recreate. The Cortex Vortex, however...was a different story.  
  
Cortex's new experiments have been numerous. Out of countless tries, only a few animals which have gone over intense zapping from the Evolvo-Ray were considered worthy enough to be a part of Cortex's fighting force. Those few were, a tiger-like beast with muscles of impressive proportions, a pair of komodo dragons, one skinny, one fat, who are (somewhat) skilled with swords, and a mad, yet intelligent, hopping dog-like creature who was actually experimented on with the first Evolvo-Ray, not the second, unlike the others. Actually, this last one was just one Cortex kept around, as maybe, just maybe, it could be useful. His newest test involving fusing two animals together.  
  
Cortex predicted that by combining the swift, graceful, and quick-witted dingo with the powerful, silent, and stealthy crocodile would create the ultimate Cortex Creature to lead his Cortex Army.  
  
Oh, how wrong he was...for the second time!  
  
His first creature which was supposed to be the general of his army just happened to be a bandicoot. A bandicoot named Crash Bandicoot to be precise. Who ended up DESTROYING the (very) small army, along with Cortex's plans of world domination, but one would think you already knew that.  
  
Instead of the menacing beast he hoped for, Cortex's ended up with a critter that appeared rather cute if you looked at it a certain way.  
  
"Bah!" Cortex huffed. "I have wasted my time. N. Gin, get this reject out of my sight. Feed him to Tiny, or let Ripper Roo tear him to shreads, I don't care what you do as long as you get rid of him."  
  
"Yes, Dr. Cortex." N. Gin nodded, trying not to sigh. "Come here, you."  
  
Instead of coming quietly, like many of the rejects before him, the half dingo, half crocodile mutation snapped and growled at N. Gin, ferociously fighting back, which left quite a few marks on N. Gin.  
  
Cortex sat back, and watched his reject resist his cheif henchman with interest. "Enough." He commanded in such an empowering voice that made even the most vicious of animals freeze. Cortex smirked evily as he put his head closer to the creature, making him cower in fear. "Perhaps you aren't such a reject after all."  
  
~*~  
  
Cortex immediately put his creature to work, hauling crates and doing all kinds of manual labor, occasionally shooting at him with a shocking lazer gun whenever productivity began slowing down.  
  
"He needs a name." Cortex pondered. He turned to N. Gin and his other Evolvo-Ray results. "Any ideas?"  
  
Komodo Moe, the fat one of the two komodo dragons spoke up. "How about Murray?" Ripper Roo, the crazy dog-like animal cracked up, laughing hysterically.  
  
"Murray?! MURRAY!?" Cortex yelled loud enough for everyone within a one kilometer radius could hear...and make shut up. Even Ripper Roo didn't dare laugh. "What kind of name is MURRAY for a dingo-crocodile!?"  
  
"Heh. Dingodile." the skinny komodo dragon, Komodo Joe, chuckled to himself.  
  
Cortex overheard him. "Dingodile...Dingodile! That's perfect! I'm glad I thought of it." He beamed proudly.  
  
Komodo Joe would've said something, but then he remembered that Cortex was his supreme boss, and horrible things could happen if he did.  
  
~*~  
  
The dingo-crocodile, now officially named Dingodile, proved to be a hard worker and earned his keep, which was basically food, a place to sleep, and not being constantly whipped by Cortex's mass produced robotic lab assistants. Yes, every living organism (except for N. Gin) who was under Cortex's command and mercy only got those three things for their services. Even Tiny, the super strong feline, who was actually rather nice and became Dingodile's best and only friend.  
  
Then Cortex prepared for his second attempt to conquer the world. But this time, he needed a new approach. Not an all out offensive, perhaps something sneaky, which was a trait all of his Evolvo-Ray experiments had. This time, he decided he would trick his enemy, Crash Bandicoot into gathering crystals for him.  
  
Under the disguise of protecting the world, Cortex found Crash (Who was innocently getting a battery for his sister, Coco Bandicoot's laptop computer) and had him hunt for crystals. To make it believable, Cortex sent out his creatures one by one to try and hinder Crash's progress, but they were to lose on purpose, so the marsupial could continue to track down the crystals.  
  
Except for Dingodile. Cortex had a special task for him. Since Dingodile was just a worker, and not a part of the Cortex Army, and yet, not robotic, he was sent to monitor the bandicoot in secret, make sure he was still under the influence that Cortex wanted to save the world.  
  
However, there was nothing the poor dingo-crocodile could do about Nitrus Brio and Coco Bandicoot's communications to him. Eventually, Nitrus Brio helped Crash shoot Cortex's spacecraft down.  
  
Although none of this was Dingodile's fault, he was still beaten badly for not doing anything about Crash realizing that Cortex actually wanted to take over the world. And yet...he was told NOT to do anything but watch, regardless of the circumstances.  
  
All this was very confusing and very painful to Dingodile.  
  
~*~  
  
One day, Tiny marched over to Dingodile and handed him a flamethrower.  
  
"What's this?" Dingodile inquired, examining the weapon.  
  
"This is a flamethrower. Cortex asked Tiny to give it to Dingodile." Tiny, who obviously wasn't very well educated in the ways of grammar answered. "Cortex says Dingodile now part of army. Tiny and Dingodile need to go get pretty crystals for Cortex so Cortex can rule world. Pretty crystals make Cortex happy. When Cortex happy, Cortex no hurt Tiny and Dingodile. Then Tiny and Dingodile happy. Then everyone will be happy."  
  
Dingodile blinked, trying to apprehend the confusing message. Apparently, Tiny was under the illusion that Cortex was good and Crash was evil. "Yes...we'll that's very good logic, but what do I need this flamethrower for?" he asked, fingering the gun in his hands.  
  
"Dingodile may have to fight Crash Bandicoot." Tiny explained. "Crash very small, but Crash very mean. Crash hurt Tiny last time." Apparently, Tiny didn't hear Cortex's order to lose on purpose last time. Tiny was really trying to win. "Dingodile can use flamethrower to burn Crash."  
  
"I...see..." Dingodile said, not knowing what else to say.  
  
~*~  
  
Dingodile shivered and adjusted his coat. Why, of all places, did Cortex send him to the South Pole...during the Ice Age? Well, none of that mattered at the moment. It would only be a short matter of time before the bandicoot arrived. The only think that kept him alive was the flamethrower, which was the only source of heat in this dreadfully cold area.  
  
Not only that, he was starving. He was hungry enough to eat a penguin that was passing by. He was about to incinerate it when he heard an odd sound...which could only mean that the famous Crash Bandicoot was there and ready to fight.  
  
Dingodile growled. Not just because he was supposed to be hostile to Crash, but the bandicoot had made him lose his only chance of getting something to eat something before he died of hunger. The penguin had ran and found safety.  
  
Cold, hungry, and just plain fed up with his life, Dingodile allowed Crash to win, intentionally missing the marsupial and making as easy as possible for the bandicoot to win without making it look like he faked it.  
  
The third time his face was slammed into the cold, unforgiving snow, he finally gave up, for fearing that any more attacks from Crash would kill him...although it didn't sound like such a bad idea after the bandicoot took his leave.  
  
Dingodile wondered that if he layed quietly in the snow, he'd die before someone found him. It didn't matter to him if he died...why go back to Cortex if all that was going to come from it was a life of slavery? If Cortex wanted another dingo-crocodile, he could just make one.  
  
But it wasn't going to happen. Five minutes after his defeat, Tiny came to retrieve his friend.  
  
"We go back now, Dingodile." He said to the still breathing body in the snow.  
  
"I'm not going." Dingodile grunted, not bothering to look at the feline.  
  
Tiny didn't understand. "Why?"  
  
"What's the point?" Dingodile asked, turning his back to Tiny. "We go back, we get beaten. Then Cortex will devise another plan to take over the world, and Crash will come and thwart it, and the whole process repeats. Like they say, it's a vicious cycle."  
  
Tiny removed his hat and scratched his head. "Who is "they"?"  
  
Dingodile hurled some snow at the tiger, nailng him in the face. "Have you been listening to what I've been saying!? I don't want to go back. You can, Tiny. But I'm just going to lie here and count snowflakes until I die. Which won't take very long because I'm freezing and haven't eaten anything in two days." Dingodile flipped himself on his back and stared at the sky. "One...two...three..."  
  
Tiny sighed. "Tiny sorry, Dingodile." With that, he grabbed the dingo-crocodile and returned to the present with him.  
  
~*~  
  
The next major predicament Dingodile found himself in was a rather odd one that involved racing to protect the planet from an alien, Nitros Oxide, who wanted to turn Earth into a parking lot. Pretty much everyone was racing for it. Even Cortex, who only did so because if Oxide ruled the world, he couldn't.  
  
The catch was, only one person could race Oxide, and of course, it was Crash Bandicoot, who obviously succeeded and saved the world for the fourth time.  
  
And so, once again, Dingodile was left feeling insignificant to the world.  
  
Still, he managed to slip away from Cortex after the "adventure" and opened up his own unique petshop. Then, he had his first real taste of happiness. Not because his pets were highly popular, because he enjoyed running a petshop. Not only that, the animals (Pure bred and cross bred alike) liked him very much.  
  
After a while, he heard Tiny had started a chain of fitness centers and starred in his very own "Tiny-bo" excercise tape. Dingodile couldn't help but smile at his friend's success.  
  
But a life of peace didn't last long, as the two great witch doctor sprits, Aku Aku and Uka Uka started quarreling again...  
  
~*~  
  
Aku Aku and Uka Uka wern't allowed to fight each other, so they needed some other way to solve their endless arguments. They decided to pick a team of representatives who would fight for them.  
  
Aku Aku obviously chose Crash and Coco Bandicoot.  
  
Knowing this, Uka Uka cleverly decided to put things in his favor by having a team of six: Cortex, N. Brio, Koala Kong, Cortex's new recruit, Rilla Roo, who was half gorilla half kangaroo due to a train wreck, Tiny, and Dingodile.  
  
Being equally as clever as his brother sprit, Aku Aku convinced Uka Uka to give him two players to be on the side of good, for Uka Uka could not find a legimate reason not to. Then came the hard part. Which two would Aku Aku choose? Would ANY of them come willingly? If not, then Aku Aku would have to have a team of two against a team of six.  
  
A cold shiver went down Dingodile's spine. The good witch doctor was reaching into his mind and memories. He shifted uneasily as his thoughts were being explored.  
  
"It doesn't have to be this way." Aku Aku's voice echoed in his head. "You don't have to spend the rest of your life enslaved by evil. I can set you free."  
  
The words were soothing as Dingodile's breathing slowed and his heart beat faster. He replayed the message over a few times in his head. Yes, it was true. If he DID join Aku Aku's side, he would no longer be under Cortex's control.  
  
Dingodile blinked, and in an instant, he found himself behind the Bandicoot siblings with Tiny by his side.  
  
"Dingodile Tiny's friend." Tiny explained, noticing the confused look on his friend's face. "Where Dingodile go, Tiny go, too. Tiny see that Crash and Coco no mean. Tiny tired of Cortex hurting Tiny."  
  
Dingodile grinned, as he knew he had made the right choice.  
  
~*~  
  
End  
  
~*~  
  
A/N: This was harder to write than I thought it would be. But I guess it was worth it. And yes, I always thought Tiny and Dingodile would make good friends. *Hugs Dingodile and Tiny plushies*  
  
I like this fic. I think you will be seeing me again in the Crash section somewhere in the future. ^_^ 


End file.
